Telephone display device

ABSTRACT

A telephone display device comprises a pair of spaced apart legs, an easel mounted to the tops of the legs and a support member extending transversely across the bottom of the legs. The support member is proportioned to fit within the hand grip opening at the back of a telephone set and contains resiliently biased lugs to lockingly engage surfaces of the telephone. The easel extends above the telephone receiver when the display stand is in position and includes spaced lugs for capturing the binding of an information containing booklet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to display devices and in particular to adisplay stand adapted to be secured to a telephone set.

Since the telephone set in a hotel or motel room is in a location whichis bound to attract the attention of the room's occupant, it presents avery convenient location for positioning information for the guest. Suchinformation may, for example, comprise instructions for the use of thetelephone, services and facilities available to the guest,advertisements of merchants, listings of activities and the like. It isdesirable to display such information in as permanent and asaesthetically pleasing a manner as possible, while, at the same time,maintaining a degree of security both over the display device andinformation. In addition, since some of the information may change fromtime to time, the display device must be such as to enable the hotelstaff to make changes with relative ease. Thus, the display must becapable of holding a booklet or similar information medium firmly inposition yet in a manner whereby the information is readily accessibleto the guest. In addition, the display should be such as to permit thehotel staff to change the information with relative ease as required yetmake it difficult for a guest to walk off with the information. Finally,the display itself should be affixed to the telephone set in a mannerwhich makes it difficult for a guest to remove yet which may be attachedwith ease.

Heretofore, various devices have been suggested which, in order to meetsome of the above criteria, sacrifice others. In one common device, aslide is affixed to the bottom of the telephone set. The information inthe form of cards or a booklet is mounted to the slide and is normallystored beneath the telephone set out of view of the guest.

In view of the above, it is the principal object of the presentinvention to provide a telephone display stand which meets all of theabove criteria.

A further object is to provide such a display stand which may readilyand simply be installed on a telephone set without requiring the use ofany tools but which, once in position, requires some skill to remove.

A still further object is to provide a display stand which is attractiveyet one which may be manufactured relatively inexpensively.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above and other beneficial objects and advantages are attained inaccordance with the present invention by providing a display stand foruse with a conventional telephone set. Such telephone sets have a cradlewith a top surface for supporting a telephone receiver and a bottomsurface defining the top of a hand grip opening extending toward thefront of the telephone from the rear. The cradle bottom surface includesa downwardly extending lip at the top rear of the opening which isnormally rounded off to protect the user's fingers. The stand comprisesa base in the form of a pair of spaced apart legs having an easelattached to the top thereof. A supporting member extends forwardly fromthe bottom of the legs. The support member is proportioned to fit withinthe hand grip opening of the telephone and includes surfaces thereon forlockingly engaging surfaces of the telephone set which define theopening. The support member surfaces include at least one lug which isspring biased to lock in position behind the telephone lip when thesupport member is positioned within the hand grip opening. The lug has atop surface defining a cam so that the spring bias may be overcome bythe lip as the support member is inserted into the opening.

The easel includes means for engaging the binding of a spiral boundinformation containing booklet. The means include spaced apart lugswhich engage the spiral binding in a tight friction fit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is depicted in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a rear perspective environmental view of a display stand inaccordance with the present invention in operative position on aconventional telephone set;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective environmental view;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary side elevational sectional view of the displaystand; and,

FIG. 4 is a sectional view along reference line 4--4 of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Reference is now made to the drawings and to FIGS. 1 and 2 in particularwherein the display stand 10 of the present invention is shown inposition on an associated telephone hand set 12. Telephone set 12 is ofconventional design comprising a base 14 and receiver 16. Receiver 16fits within surfaces defining a cradle 18. As shown in FIG. 3, thetelephone receiver 16 is supported on the top surface 20 of the cradle.The bottom surface of the cradle defines the top of a hand grip openinggenerally designated by the numeral 22. This opening is provided onvirtually all telephone sets and serves to enable the user to carry atelephone set from place to place.

The bottom surface of the cradle terminates at its rear edge 24 in adownwardly extending lip 26. This lip is generally rounded as shown andprovides a blunt edge for contact with the user's hand. With theexception of the above, the remaining details of the telephone set 12are immaterial to the present invention.

The display stand 10 comprises a base 28 defined by a pair of spacedapart legs 38 and 40 to which an easel 30 is mounted at the top thereof.The easel consits of two essentially side-by-side sections 32 and 34separated by a spine 36. The spacing of the legs is on the order of twoinches so as to fit within the hand grip opening. The legs aresufficiently long so that the entire easel extends above the telephonereceiver when the display device is installed on a telephone.

A pair of arms 42 extend forwardly from the bottoms of legs 38 and 40. Asupport member comprising a transversely extending member 44 is securedat its sides to the spaced apart arms 42. The top and bottom edges 46and 48 respectively of member 44 are spaced apart from each other adistance substantially equal to or somewhat less than the verticaldimension of hand grip opening 22 which is approximately 11/8 inches. Inthis regard, the bottom surfaces of the arms are contoured to follow thecurvature of the rear of the telephone as shown in FIG. 3.

In accordance with the present invention, a pair of spaced apart lockinglugs 50 and 52 extend rearwardly from the top edge 46 of member 44. Eachof the lugs 50 and 52 is cantilevered to the top edge 46. The topsurface 54 of the lugs taper upwardly and rearwardly defining a cammingsurface to engage the rounded lip 26 on the telephone at the top of theopening. The rear face 56 of each lug drops off sharply as shown in FIG.3.

In a successful practice of the present invention the display stand wasformed of clear Lexan (a registered trademark of the General ElectricCo.) with lugs 50 and 52 formed integral with member 44. This materialis sufficiently resilient and flexible so that as the stand supportportion is inserted within the hand grip opening, the lip 26 served todepress lugs 50 and 52 until the lugs pass freely under lip 26 at whichtime they snap up into the locking engagement depicted in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 2, it can be seen that the display stand 10 contains abooklet 56 the pages of which are bound together by a looped binding 58.As shown in FIG. 4, the binding 58 includes a spine 60 into which eachloop 62 of the binding is locked in position. In accordance with thepresent invention, spaced locking lugs 64 are provided extendinglongitudinally along opposite sides of the display stand spine 36. Thelugs serve to tightly engage the booklet spine and thereby capture thebooklet in position. Support brackets 68 are provided on the easelsection to engage the covers of booklet 56 and hold it in position.These brackets may also be used to engage a card 70 which may, forexample, contain telephone dialing information or other specialinformation or instructions.

An important feature of the present invention resides in the fact thatlugs 50 and 52 are spaced apart from each other and joined by a commonsection 66 which extends from member 44. As previously stated, thedisplay stand may be locked in position by merely inserting it into thetelephone set hand grip opening until the lugs snap into place. Onoccasion, an authorized person may desire to remove the display stand.This may be accomplished by inserting a screwdriver or the like oversection 66 and applying a downward pressure. This will cause the lugs 50and 52 to move downwardly until they clear the lip of the telephone setopening. To this end, the spacing of section 66 is such as toaccommodate the head of a screwdriver.

Another feature of the present invention is the fact that support legs38 and 40 are spaced apart from each other and that the arms 42 extendforwardly from the lower portion of these legs. Thus, even when thedisplay stand is in position, the hand grip opening may stilleffectively be used for its intended purpose, namely to enable one tolift and carry the telephone set.

Thus, in accordance with the above, the aforementioned objectives havebeen effectively attained.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:
 1. A displaystand for use with a telephone set of the type having a cradle with atop surface for supporting a telephone receiver and bottom surfacedefining the top of a hand grip opening extending toward the front ofthe telephone from the rear, said cradle bottom surface including adownwardly extending lip at the top rear of said opening, said standcomprising: a pair of spaced legs, an easel supported to the upperportions of said legs, a supporting member extending forwardly from thelower portion of said legs, said member being proportioned to fit withinsaid hand grip opening and including surfaces thereon for lockinglyengaging surfaces of said telephone set defining said opening; saidsupporting member extending transversely between said legs and includinga top edge, and at least one locking lug secured to said supportingmember top edge and biased to extend upwardly beyond said top edge toengage said telephone opening lip when said support member is positionedwithin said telephone opening, said locking lug having a top cammingsurface adapted to engage said downwardly extending lip.
 2. The displaystand in accordance with claim 1 wherein said locking lug iscantilevered rearwardly from said front surface top edge.
 3. The displaystand in accordance with claim 1 comprising a pair of locking lugsspaced apart from each other.